Worst of storm still to come as holiday travelers hit roads

Sunday

Dec 22, 2013 at 12:01 AMDec 22, 2013 at 2:08 PM

CHICAGO - A storm with a 2,000-mile footprint threatened to frustrate Christmas travelers from Texas to Nova Scotia with a little of everything Mother Nature has to offer, from freezing rain, ice and snow to flooding, thunderstorms and possibly tornadoes in the South.

CHICAGO — A storm with a 2,000-mile footprint threatened to frustrate Christmas travelers from Texas to Nova Scotia with a little of everything Mother Nature has to offer, from freezing rain, ice and snow to flooding, thunderstorms and possibly tornadoes in the South.

Some of the millions of people hitting the roads and airports yesterday squeaked through before any major weather hit. But as the afternoon wore on, cancellations and delays started to mount at major aviation hubs.

Forecasters said roads that are passable one minute could become treacherous the next as a cold blast on the back end of the storm turns rain to ice and snow.

Making it harder for forecasters to stay a step ahead, the system was a weird swirl of wintry and springlike weather as it passed over the Midwest, with freezing temperatures in some areas, and places like Nashville, Tenn., where it could surpass 70 degrees.

“This is a particularly strong storm with very warm, near-record-breaking temperatures in the East and very cold air in the Midwest, and that contrast is the sort of conditions that are favorable for not only winter weather but also tornadoes,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Ed Danaher in College Park, Md.

The worst of the storm was expected to hit Midwestern population centers last night, giving some travelers a window at the start of the holiday rush to get through airports and along highways with little disruption. Flight cancellations were creeping above 400 across the country, according to the aviation tracking website FlightAware.com. Most of the disruptions were affecting flights in and out of major hubs such as O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth International and Denver International.

It’s bad timing for the estimated 94.5 million Americans planning to travel by road or air during the holiday season, which runs from yesterday through New Year’s Day, and those hitting the roads for some last-minute shopping.

The storm had several bands of strikingly different weather.

In the upper Midwest, forecasters expected 6 to 8 inches of snow north and west of Chicago and into Wisconsin.

It was already bringing significant ice to Oklahoma, southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, splitting trees and snapping power lines. It was expected to change over to snow by last night.

Parts of Maine could get more than a half-inch coating of ice.

The weather service issued a flash-flood watch from Arkansas northeast through parts of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, with up to 4 inches of rain projected. With falling temperatures, some of that could be freezing rain overnight in the St. Louis area, weather service meteorologist Jon Carney said.

In Indiana, the National Weather Service posted flood warnings along southern and central Indiana streams and predicted the highest flood crests along the East Fork of the White River since April 2011.

Rain and ice in Oklahoma were blamed for two fatal traffic accidents and thousands of power failures. A 16-year-old boy died yesterday after his car crashed and overturned on

Rt. 64 near Tulsa, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said. And Oklahoma City police said a woman was killed on Friday night in a collision on a slick road.